Jackdaw 



LETTER XXL 



'To the same. 



SELBORNE, Nov. ^%th^ 1768. 

 EAR SIR, With regard to the <cdic*emus, or 



stone-curlew, I intend to write very soon to my 

 friend near Chichester, in whose neighbourhood 

 these birds seem most to abound ; and shall urge 

 him to take particular notice when they begin to 

 congregate, and afterwards to watch them most 

 narrowly whether they do not withdraw themselves 

 during the dead of the winter. When I have obtained information 

 with respect to this circumstance, I shall have finished my history of 

 the stone-curlew ; which I hope will prove to your satisfaction, as it 

 will be, I trust, very near the truth. This gentleman, as he occupies 

 a large farm of his own, and is abroad early and late, will be a very 

 proper spy upon the motions of these birds ; and besides, as I have 

 prevailed on him to buy the Naturalist's Journal (with which he is 

 much delighted), I shall expect that he will be very exact in his dates. 

 It is very extraordinary, as you observe, that a bird so common with 

 us should never straggle to you. 



And here will be the properest place to mention, while I think of 

 it, an anecdote which the above-mentioned gentleman told me when 



